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Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Sepia Saturday - Men Minus Ties

Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.This week's prompt invites us to look at men in ties and braces. Well, most of the men in my photographs are dressed very formally for weddings or military service. So instead I have focussed on more casual wear both for work and leisure - with men minus their ties!

MEN AT WORK

This photograph was in the collection of my Uncle Fred Weston who grew up in Broseley, Shropshire, across the river from its more famous neighbour - Ironbridge, birthplace of England's Industrial Revolution.

Here is Tommy Rodgers, a well known local character, who was a
a coracle
maker. When
the famous Iron Bridge was opened in 1779, locals objected to paying the tolls, so they
used their coracles to cross the river instead;alsoto fish and to poach. Tommy Roger was well known as a poacher and the local newspaper regularly reported
his appearance in court on poaching charges. He also helped to build the new
police cells and court room in Ironbridge in 1862 - only to be one of the first
people to appear there.

More working men's garb, with my grandfather William Danson of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire sitting in the front of this group of workers. Granddad was described as a labourer on his wedding certificate of 1907. At one stage he worked in the local auction mart, and then at the ICI chemical works at Thornton, near Fleetwood.

This could be work or leisure, but here is my husband's father John Robert Donaldson taking a break from his work as a sign writer and decorator.

﻿

A lace cravat, rather than a tie, worn by one of the many costumed city guides in Vienna -

- catching up on his information?

MEN AT LEISURE

My father John Weston (left) with his younger brother Charles, adopting a casual pose of men around town. I have told the story of Dad's first drive before on my blog, , but it is so entertaining, I could not resits featuring it again.Dad was a commercial traveller and in the 1930's got a new job with instructions to pick up a car at Derby and drive 90 miles north to a position in Blackpool. He had never driven before and here is his tale of his first hair- raising journey, told in his own words.

""I had never driven a car before. On Boxing Day, I went to the British School of Motoring and said I wanted some urgent lessons. When I told the instructor I was driving to Blackpool the next day, he nearly had a fit. I collected my car - a four door Morris saloon which I was expected to buy on hire purchase at 18 shillings per week. It was a traumatic journey with me being a complete novice, having had no proper tuition. There was no heating, no radio of course to help pass the time, and the windscreen wipers kept seizing up. I had also been told that the tyres were awful for punctures. Still I made it, as darkness fell - just as well, as I wasn't too sure about the lights!"

Thirty years on and now driving with a caravan in tow, Dad take on a more casual look, besides his older brother Fred who has kept to his tie, despite the obvious warm weather.

My husband is the little boy in his school coat and cap, on the pillion of his father's motor bike. No concerns then about health and safety and the wearing of crash helmets! But notice that his father's jacket is pin striped and he has a handkerchief tucked in his top pocket.

I must admit I took this photograph rather surreptitiously in a cafe bar in Munch Square, in Bavaria, Germany. The two men looked so genial sitting there with their huge beer tankards, casually dressed and enjoying a convivial drink. Combined with the sign, this seemed such a good photograph to take to typify the Bavarian scene.

18 comments:

Poor Tommy Rodgers. Some guys never get a break. That's too funny about his helping to build the jail & then being it's first occupant. Another interesting note: Neil's father was a sign painter. My maternal grandfather painted signs and advertisements and did a little house painting on the side!

The coracle is amazing -- I've never seen (nor heard of) one here in the USA. Looks like a giant basket; the fact that it's so easily portaged is clever! See? keep learning such wonderful things from Sepians! And the Tommy Rodgers story is very funny...

Love that picture of the motor bike reminded me of my dad and his motor bikes he had an old BSA and he also later had a little Honda that he used to let me ride as a teenager of about 14! Oh how things have changedJackie Scrapbangwallop

About Me

I have been interested in family history for years. It all began when I was allowed as a child to look through the old family photographs and memorabilia kept in a shoebox in the cupboard at my grandfather's house. That treat started me on a fascinating ancestral trail.